U.S. patent number 6,597,384 [Application Number 09/470,726] was granted by the patent office on 2003-07-22 for automatic reorienting of screen orientation using touch sensitive system.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Intel Corporation. Invention is credited to Edward R. Harrison.
United States Patent |
6,597,384 |
Harrison |
July 22, 2003 |
Automatic reorienting of screen orientation using touch sensitive
system
Abstract
An automatically-reconfigurable screened device. The direction
of display is automatically sensed, and is automatically changed.
The display is sensed by detecting which of a plurality of sensors
is being touched.
Inventors: |
Harrison; Edward R. (Beaverton,
OR) |
Assignee: |
Intel Corporation (Santa Clara,
CA)
|
Family
ID: |
23868782 |
Appl.
No.: |
09/470,726 |
Filed: |
December 22, 1999 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
345/204; 345/169;
345/173; 345/178; 348/556 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F
1/1626 (20130101); G06F 1/1684 (20130101); G06F
3/03547 (20130101); G09G 5/00 (20130101); G06F
2200/1614 (20130101); G09G 2340/0464 (20130101); G09G
2340/0492 (20130101); G09G 2340/14 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G09G
5/00 (20060101); G09G 005/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;345/173,169,126,864,905,123 ;361/681,683 ;235/472 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Shalwala; Bipin
Assistant Examiner: Lewis; David L
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Fish & Richardson P.C.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A reconfigurable oriented view screen device, comprising: a
housing, having a plurality of sensors at different locations on
the housing each a sensor which senses a position of touching; a
detector, which detects said position of touching, by finding which
of said plurality of sensors is being touched at any one time; and
a display configuration element, which forms information for
display on a screen that is oriented in a display mode that is
based on said position of touching.
2. A device as in claim 1 further comprising a memory, storing a
database of information which correlates said position of touching
to a screen orientation.
3. A device as in claim 2 wherein said display configuration
element uses said position of touching to access said database and
determine an orientation of a screen therefrom and change said
direction of display based on said orientation.
4. A device as in claim 3 further comprising a user interface which
enables a manual change of said orientation.
5. A device as in claim 1 further comprising a screen with a
rectangular ratio.
6. A device as in claim 5 wherein said screen has four corners, and
wherein there are four sensors, one located near each of said
corners.
7. A reconfigurable screen device, comprising: a housing, having at
least first and second positions; a display, attached to said
housing; a first sensor, located at said first position; a second
sensor located at said second position; a processor, executing a
stored program to determine if said first sensor is being touched
by a user and to orient said display of the display information in
first direction if so, and to determine if the second sensor is
being touched by a user and orienting the display in a second
direction, different than said first direction, if so.
8. A device as in claim 7, wherein said sensors are formed by
conductive paint.
9. A device as in claim 7, wherein said sensors are mechanical
sensors.
Description
The present application describes an automatically-reoriented
screen.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Computer screens conventionally have a rectangular aspect ratio.
Screens in the United States, for example, are typically oriented
with the wider portion of the screen oriented horizontally
("landscape mode"). Word processing-based computers often orient
the screen with the wider portion being vertical, ("portrait mode")
to match the orientation of a conventional printer.
This raises the possibility of displaying the information
differently depending on the orientation of the computer screen.
Display drivers are known which enable displaying information in
either the portrait mode or landscape mode. A computer screen could
be changed between orthogonal directions to display either the
portrait mode or the landscape mode. It may be possible to manually
orient the screen orientation between the modes. However, this
could be a time consuming process.
This could be usable in a system that uses a hand-held terminal to
access the Internet or in an LCD monitor.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present application describes a reconfigurable oriented view
screen device, that has a sensor which senses a position of
touching, and a display reconfiguration element, which
automatically changes a direction of display on the screen based on
the position of touching.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
These and other aspects will now be described with reference to the
drawings, including:
FIGS. 1A and 1B show an embodiment of the touch screen, oriented in
orthogonal directions;
FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the hardware of the system; and
FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of operation.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The present application teaches using a touch sensitive device
which automatically senses screen orientation from the way that the
screen is being touched. The sensed screen orientation is used to
adjust the display driver to change the mode of display.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show an embodiment. A housing 99 forms a shroud for
a screen 101, preferably a screen with a rectangular aspect ratio.
The screen periphery also includes a number of touch sensors 100,
102, 104 and 106. The sensors can be any kind of sensor, including
a mechanical sensor, or conductive paint, for example. Each of the
sensor detects touching by a person's hand. The position where the
user is touching the screen is used to determine the screen
orientation. The image on the screen is automatically rotated so as
to appear right side up to the user based on that determined
orientation.
FIG. 1A shows the user holding the display in the area of sensor
104. This is an indication that the screen is being held in the
orientation shown in FIG. 1A, in the so-called landscape mode. The
image on the screen, e.g. the text, is reoriented to display in the
appropriate direction as shown.
FIG. 1B shows the user holding the device in the area sensor 106.
This indicates that the area of holding the sensor is intended to
be the bottom portion of the screen. This area of holding hence
detects that the screen is being oriented in portrait mode, as
shown. The image on the screen is then reoriented and displayed in
the new orientation.
The device shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B can be hand held devices for
Internet access, such as a palm top computer or a cellular
telephone, or an audio visual system remote control with a
display.
A block diagram of the system is shown in FIG. 2, and a flowchart
of its operation is shown in FIG. 3. The device includes any basic
computing mechanism: a processor 190, with associated memory 192. A
display configuration function can be carried out by the processor
directly driving the display, or alternatively by a dedicated
display driver. Display driver 193 can be selectively operated in
either portrait or landscape mode under software control. The
sensors 100, 102, 104 and 106 are also shown. The sensors are shown
directly connected to the processor, although it should be
understood that they can alternately be connected via an interface,
such as a multiplexer or an analog to digital, A to D
converter.
The processor runs a routine stored in memory 192.
A database of known hand positions is first obtained at step 200.
This can be obtained in a number of different ways. One way is to
use a statistical sampling of different hand orientations obtained
through experimentation. Another way is to continuously monitor
information from the actual screen being monitored, and form a
database including information on the user's individual way of
holding the screen and the selected mode when the display is held
in that way.
At step 202, the system detects which sensor is being touched by
the user. This is used along with the database 200 to determine the
orientation from the actual hand positions and from the information
in the database. Step 210 represents a manual request by the user
to change the screen orientation. This typically indicates that the
detected screen orientation was incorrect. Hence, this information
can be added to the database of known hand positions and used as
corrective information. For example, this indicates that when the
user is holding the screen as per the current configuration, that
the correct orientation should be as per the changed orientation.
This information is stored in the memory 192.
Another embodiment uses the position of screen touching to
determine handedness. For example, by determining whether a user is
touching left or right, the handedness of a person is detected, and
the screen is rearranged appropriately.
Although only a few embodiments have been disclosed in detail
above, other modifications are possible.
All such modifications are intended to be encompassed in the
following claims, in which:
* * * * *